Waitukubuli National Trail, Dominica – Planning

Inspiration

Since I decided to delay my Round The World Trip for 1 year, I was looking for a trip that I could fit in the range of 16 to 18 days. A lot of ideas floated around. I though of taking the Trans-Mongolian Railway, stopping maybe only once in Mongolia, but in the end I felt that I would have just rushed through the 3 countries. I though of doing the John Muir Trail again, but I’m a completionist and it would take me 21 days to complete it without rush. I thought of maybe hiking in the Peruvian Andes again, or maybe visit Cambodia and Angkor Wat.

To help narrow my choices, I decided to set a few criteria:

It had to be a hike, since I haven’t gone on a long hike in 2 years. I had ACL/Meniscus surgery 10 years ago and the doctor told me that I’d most likely get arthritis around the age 40. I want to hike as much as possible before then.

It had to be place that I wasn’t likely to visit during the RTW trip. This ruled out the Andes and Cambodia.

I didn’t want to rush through the place. This ruled out the Trans-Mongolian, which I also plan to do during the RTW, but stopping often along the way.

I then came across an article by Lonely Planet, listing the World’s Best Long Walks. One of them was the Waitukubuli National Trail in Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic, totally different country). It fit all 3 criteria. When I found out that I could use my frequent flier miles to get the plane tickets, I was sold.

Transportation

Plane tickets are booked for the end of November from Los Angeles to Dominica. Once there, there are buses and taxis to/from the major towns. There are not bus schedules online. Hitchhiking seem to be widespread and generally safe. I would only need transportation from the airport to the trail head (Scotts Head), and from the end of the trail (Cabrits) back to the airport.

The return flight is a killer with 3 stopovers: Puerto Rico, Miami, and Denver with an overnight layover.

Trail Details

The total length is about 185 km (115 miles), split into 14 segments. It was supposedly “completed” last year, but I can’t find any confirmation of this. “Completed” would mean that bridges would be built for the more dangerous water crossing, campsites would be laid out, etc.

Waitukubuli National Trail map (from skyviews.com)

I haven’t been able to find any online journals from anybody who has completed the whole trail. There is however a Dominica guidebook by Paul Crask. It has a whole chapter on the Waitukubuli National Trail, describing each section. I’m still digesting the information in there. It’s not super detailed, but it still has some info I haven’t found anywhere else. There’s also some other information scattered around the internet (maps, segment details, accommodations and camping spots, etc).

I compiled the table below using the official brochure of the hike and the distances just don’t add up. It is supposed to be a 185 km hike, but when you add up the individual segments, the total ends up being 149 km.

Segment

Description

Distance

Est. Time

Difficulty

Total Distance

149.3 km

1

Scotts Head to Soufriere Estate

7 km

5.5 hours

Easy

2

Soufriere Estate to Bellevue Chopin

10.8 km

6.5 hours

Moderate

3

Bellevue Chopin to Wotten Waven

14.9 km

7 hours

Moderate

4

Wotten Waven to Pont Casse

11.7 km

6 hours

Moderate

5

Pont Casse to Castle Bruce

12.8 km

6 hours

Easy

6

Castle Bruce to Hatten Garden

15 km

7 hours

Moderate

7

Hatten Garden to First Camp

12.6 km

6 hours

Moderate

8

First Camp to Petite Macoucherie

10 km

6 hours

Difficult

9

Petite Macoucherie to Colihaut Heights

9.8 km

7 hours

Hard

10

Colihaut Heights to Syndicate

6.4 km

4 hours

Easy

11

Syndicate to Borne

10 km

7 hours

Hard

12

Borne to Penville

9.5 km

7 hours

Hard

13

Penville to Capuchin

8 km

3.5 hours

Moderate

14

Capuchin to Cabrits

10.8 km

5 hours

Moderate

It seems on most of the sections, you’ll be able to to purchase food, either cooked on the spot or packaged. Accommodation is also available in certain spots. Although I do plan to camp as much as possible, not having to go a whole week without a shower is nice.

A couple of sources recommend taking 2 weeks to finish the hike. Two weeks for 115 miles does seem like a lot of time especially since there’s not that much elevation change, I’ll have 18 total days in Dominica, so I won’t be any hurry to finish the hike quickly.

I actually like the fact that it’s a trail hasn’t been documented with great detail. I won’t be super planned out like for some of my past hikes. With all the unknowns, it feels like more of an adventure.

Trust me… some of the segments of the trail are long and hard. For example 8, 9 and 11. They are also wonderful. Send me an email if you are still planning as Seg 11 passes over my land and I may be able to help you plan your hike.

Hi Peter. I already finished the trail back in December 2012. I just haven’t had the time to transfer my journal here yet. Thanks for the offer to help me though.

I did find segments 8 and 9 to be very long and difficult, and not as enjoyable as as many of the other segments. Segment 11 was long but enjoyable, with a nice mix of flat and steep sections, and more variety in terms of scenery.

darlene March 6, 2014 at 3:38 pm

Hi….

We are coming out to hike the Waitukulbi Trail at the end of April/Early May.
Would love any suggestions on how to break it up.
We’re hoping to get it done in no more than 8 days.

If you really want to hike the whole Trail in eight days, then you need specialist help, especially with working out where to stay each night.

(I am only a recreational hiker doing, as a rule only, one Segment per day.)

May I suggest you consider joining an organized trip, so that you don’t have to worry about all the details…?

For example, in four week’s time there is an organized race, where hikers are going to do the whole Trail in five days.

You can get all the details from: http://www.theonerun.com where you will also see a map showing how they have divided the 14 Segments into only five days.

As an alternative, you could contact the local organizer by email to discover other events: his details are the word crabess then the “at” symbol followed by hotmail.com

Finally, may I suggest you consider ignoring the relatively boring (in my mind) road Segments and focus on the amazing Northern forest Segments, such as 7,8,9,10,11,12 which would only take five days as 10 and 11 can be combined if you are super fit.

Bye/P

The local organizer is Clement

darlene March 23, 2014 at 6:51 pm

Hi…..

Thanks for the info.
We really want to do the entire trail…..maybe do the first sections quicker (jogging pace) so we can spend more time on the segments you recommend.

We’ve both done some distance running and do a lot of hiking in the White mountains, so I’m hoping that we’ll be able to average at least 2 miles an hour…but I guess we won’t really know until we get out there and see the terrain.

I’ve got a plan broken down…and we’ll be prepared to make adjustments as necessary.

Do you have any recommendations for a place to stay a couple of nights before we start…(we may try to get in a dive at champagne reef before we start).

Average moving speed of 2 mph is reasonable for most of the Segments at the moment as we are in the dry season. Obviously you need to add break times. Please note some of the distances shown on the web for some of the Segments are wrong. For example Segment 8 is described as 6.21 miles when in fact it is 11.35 miles. (My recordings made using the excellent Gaia GPS app on my phone which is far more accurate than the original survey drawings!)

If you really want to hike fast, then please note there are two races being held within the next six weeks where the goal is to run the whole trail in about four or five days…

Finally, please let me know your proposed timetable as I may invite myself to join you for some of the northern Segments. My email address is simply peter then the at symbol followed by balvine dot com

Hi Kevin! I am currently planning on doing the entire trail this april, and I would love to read through your journal of the trip. Also, if you have any suggestions of side trips, or any good contacts from along the way. Thanks for helping out! Cheers

Jamie

Peter March 15, 2013 at 3:22 am

Please pass my email address on to Jamie Wilkie, asking him to contact me as I life in the north of Dominica and may be able to help him with the Trail. Segment 11 passes through our land…

I am from the states but have been living in Guatemala for a year and a half now. I am a teacher and have the summer off and am looking for something fun and different. I hiked the AT in 2010 and have been itching to get back on a trail since. I am considoring this trail, and I think playing around with flights and ferrys I can get there realitivly cheap but I cannot pay those hotel prices. In Central America 20 dollars could last a week! Could I get Peter?s contact information, as well as your advice on camping around the island to avoid 40 USD rooms?

Thanks!

Brian

Peter April 4, 2013 at 2:20 pm

You can email me as “peter” then the at symbol then the word “balvine” then a full stop symbol then the magic three letters com. This round about way of describing my email address is to reduce the amount of junk I receive.

For anyone new to this blog: I spend half the year here in Dominica and am actively involved in helping anyone interested in hiking the amazing 115 mile Waitukubuli National Trail.

Hi Brian. Unfortunately there aren’t really many places to camp in Dominica. The island is extremely mountainous and there are rarely any flat spots cleared of vegetation where you can set up a tent.

I found free spots to camp at the end of segments 7 and 13. There are paid sites at the end of segments 1 and 3. At the end of segment 3 there’s an expensive one, but if keep going about 2 km into segment 4, you’ll have The Corner Bar on the right hand side after crossing a bridge. The owner Natty will let you camp behind the restaurant for a small fee. Here’s a picture of the place:

Other than that, you’ll have a hard time finding free camping or cheap accommodation. The problem is that most start/end points of segments are in places that have no camping spots. Once in a while you might find a place to camp but i’ll be in the middle of the day for example, when you are not ready to call it a day yet, or in a place with no access to water.

Peter April 7, 2013 at 2:24 am

I suggest you contact the Trail organisers directly as they have established arrangements for people wanting to hike on a low budget: wntp@cwdom.dm

You might also like to know a shower and toilet block has been created on Segment 11, just before the new bridge of the Picard River. The local land owner, Mr Castle, is very friendly. Unfortunately he isn’t on email… but I can help put you in contact with him.

I read your blog, all about Dominica Island backpacking, and fine it very helpfull. I am planning to backpack the entire Waitukubuli National Trail in january, 2014.

I would like if you can answer some of my questions.

So far, I want to see Trafalgar Fals, Emerald Pools, and boiling lake. Did you see any of these? If so, are those places way off the trail or just short hikes off. According to my research Trafalgar Falls, and Emerald Pools should be close to Section 3b, and Section 3. The boiling lake should be somewhere close to Section 6. I am not entirely sure about these.

Do you think I can get vegetarian food there, the food that does not include fish? Were you able to find plenty of fruits on trail? i can survive just on fruits 🙂

It would be great if you can finish the journal on your backpacking experience in Dominica soon. So far, your site is the best resource I was able to find.

How many times did you have to cross creeks and was it dangerous? Did you have to have 2 pairs of hiking shoes, so one pair is dry al the time? Hiking in wet shoes in humid weather causes me blisters.

You have mentioned a strange mixture. Hiking the entire WNT is a major exercise and a complete contrast to the 10 minutes it takes to see Trafalgar Falls / Emerald Pool. Personally I think you will find TF / EP over crowded and boring…!

While I hate to speculate about your fitness – and I accept there are some very fit people who undertake Ultra Marathons on a regular basic – I would discretely suggest you consider The Boiling Lake as a hike on its own, rather than trying to combine it with other Segments of WNT.

Even if you want to combine some Segments and sleep every night in the bush, I still suspect you will need to allocate ten days just for hiking WNT. I accept you could, with support, hike the whole thing in four days but it will need a lot of planning.

However, the real point of my replying to your posting is I observe the word “I” rather than the word “We”. I advise against hiking WNT on your own as, quite simply, you are taking significant risks. (I speak as someone who has done a reasonable amount of hiking here in Dominica and, despite taking care, have had to be rescued on one occasion…!

If you want to hike alone, then tell the WNT office about your daily plans. And buy a SATphone as many of the Segments (such as 9) have almost no cell phone coverage.

I would also suggest an iPhone, together with an app called GAIA GPS. I have WNT loaded on my phone. Its great. While cell coverage is patchy, GPS works well. Mind you, I don’t know how you will be able to charge your phone if you are staying in the bush each night…

You also need to think very carefully about hiking shoes. Some of the WNT Segments pass through the rain forest, where it rains. At lot. Nothing will dry out. January/February is still regarded as the rainy season. I suggest you consider Keens Newport H2 as a compromise: a shoe that is happy being wet.

Last of all, you should not have any problems with a vegan diet as, apart from fruit, there is a plentiful supply of root vegetables, pulses and spices.

Peter already has supplied you with excellent answers. I’ll add a few points.

Trafalgar Falls is a short detour from the trail. I did it and found it worthwhile. Emerald Pools are almost right by the trail, I didn’t find it special at all, but it’s only a few hundred feet away so you might as well check it out. I didn’t have to stand in line for either. I did a short detour to Middleham falls and enjoyed it, but the last few hundred feet are very slippery and kind of dangerous. I did not go Boiling Lake, it was quite a ways off the WNT.

You’ll pass a good number of fruit farms, and you can buy fruit in most markets in most towns. The only thing that I would be worried about is that fruit is generally heavy to carry in your backpack.

I crossed a lot of creeks that had no bridges. I agree with Peter that you need to just accept the fact that your feet will get wet. Some creeks you can boulder hop (slippery and dangerous), but on many creeks that won’t be an option and you’ll get wet, it’ll inevitable. Me personally, I just walk straight into the water with my shoes (I only had 1 pair). The trail is also incredibly muddy. Make sure you wear a pair of shoes that drains water well. Do not wear waterproof shoes as moisture won’t be able to get out.

I had a pair of hiking poles, they both broke due to falls. I must have slipped at least 20 times total. In comparison, when I did a 220-mile hike in the past, I only slipped once. I would seriously recommend hiking poles, especially when going downhill.

I think the trail was still unfinished when I did it (lack of bridges, campsites, etc) but the one thing they did very well is painting the trail markers on rocks and trees. 99% of the time, if you are standing by a trail marker, you’ll be able to see where the next one is.

Phone GPS works without cell reception if you have the right phone. I believe older iPhones don’t have this feature. I used a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone with preloaded maps (although it didn’t have the WNT marked), and it helped me a lot. The maps and distances that are given to you on the WNT official site and on the sign posts can be very very inaccurate.

The WNT is not rocky but it’s full of mud and tree roots. I posted a video on youtube of me doing Segment 6:

Not all segments are like that. But you can get some idea of the terrain.

Don’t underestimate the WNT. I’ve done the West Coast Trail in Canada and it’s rated as a very difficult and dangerous trail. I did it without any problems. The WNT is the West Cost Trail on steroids. I definitely had many many frustrating moments. In all honestly, I didn’t enjoy it much, but I don’t want to discourage you.

I will finish the journal before the end of the year. I have already finished writing about all my other adventures this summer, so now I’ll just focus on the WNT journal. I should post Segment 2 in the next couple of days.

Please let me know if you have other questions. Me, and I’m sure Peter will be glad to answer them. Posting them here will also help future visitors of this page.

I will be backpacking with a friend of mine. Emerald Pools, Trafalgar Falls, and the boling lake I found on youtube as a part of my preliminary research on WTN. If you know of something beautiful to see while hiking, pleae let me know.

Peter, does the trail get washed away on regular basis, so I have to have GPS device or smart phone with WTN topo map and GPS which works without phone signal?

Are the water crossings often on WTN?

The suggestion about the shoes (I have same brand 🙂 ) makes me believe WTN is not rocky. Is it true and the trail is mostly soil?

I have backpacked in Arizona where it gets dry, cold and hot, and in Hawaii where it was wet and humid. My main concern is getting blisters if hiking in wet shoes, and water crossings although I have done both.

First off: buy a copy of “A Users’ Guide to the Waitukubuli National Trail Dominica”. ISBN: 978-976-95418-0-1 It isn’t perfect but you will find it invaluable.

I love hiking WNT and might be able to help when you get to the higher numbered Segments. (Some of Segment 11 passes over my land.) Sadly I will be off-island during the first four weeks of January.

Correct: very, very little of the Trail is rocky. “Soil” is a reasonable description of the surface.

No, the Trail does not get ‘washed away’. In general you should be able to see at least one Trail marker in front of you for 99% of the time. But the gaps between Location markers varies between 15 minutes and an hour. These Location markers are there to allow you to tell someone where you are when you need rescuing!

The reason for a GPS system is so that you know where you are, where there is a river for water, where civilisation is and it gives you a guide as to if you are keeping to your schedule. Remember, some of the Segments are quite tough physically: on occasions you will need to climb with both hands and feet. I strongly recommend a good quality hiking pole to help going down hill…

Yes… there are many rivers/streams. The majority have some form of bridge and/or stepping stones / fall tree etc. But I strongly suggest you plan to getting your feet wet on a regular basis.

I have seen hikers step into supermarket plastic carrier bags in order to keep their feet dry when crossing streams. You will be passing through a rain forest in a tropic island. It will be hot and wet. I think you need to appreciate your feet will get wet. Full stop. I suggest you walk around without shoes for the next few months to toughen up your feet.

Last of all, I personally wouldn’t bother about joining the queue of fat tourists looking at the simple sites, such as TF and EP.

If 115 miles / about 190Km of WNT isn’t enough for you, then add Boiling Lake. And Middleham Falls. And, if you are completely mad, a hike up Morne Diablotin: four hours of hill climbing before you arrive at the top… in clouds…

This is an amazing country. With a great Trail. But this isn’t like other places. Despite being physically a tiny island, you can hike all day and not see another human.

He is 100% right about how muddy and treacherous the Trail can be. Obviously choosing one of the dryer months will reduce, to a certain extent, how slippery the Trail will be.

He is also right about the benefit of having a pole. Bearing in mind Kevin actually broke two, I suggest you consider aluminum (which can be straightened) as opposed to carbon fibre (which simply snap).

Finally I would like to disagree with Kevin! I absolutely love hiking this Trail. I suggest you treat this Trail as if it were an “ultra” challenge, such Marathon des Sable, and appreciate you need to plan. And you need to do some training. Some of the northern Segments (such as 8,9,11 and 12) demand respect…

Finally I would like to restate the obvious: you need to solve the your blister problem. It will be hot, wet, humid and muddy. You therefore have two obvious options: find some amazing footwear or toughen up your feet..!

Bye/P

Bojan November 5, 2013 at 5:08 am

Peter and Kevin,

Thank you for the info you provided in such short period of time. The fact that there is no much on the internet about this trail makes it a challenge for me already 🙂 and more adventurous. Your info help me get mental picture of what to expect there.

I want to do it in January because it is the dry season there. I will definitely have good shoes that dry quickly perhaps strong sandals like keens. I will probably have 2 pairs of shoes.

Peter I got the email from you. I agree that overcrowded places are not fun if you want to enjoy pristine nature, but for us who do not live in tropical paradise everything is beautiful there. Thanks for you willing to help in person.

I will continue my research and let you guys know how it goes with my plan (I still did not finish all the links on posted on this blog). I will also physically prepare for the trail as well.

Me and my wife are planning to go to Dominica for 1 month in October of 2015. (I work in the medical field and that happened to be when I could get an entire month off).

We want to hike the entire WNT trail starting from segment 3. Just curious if you were going to put up the last segments on your blog. I love all the info you have included and already downloaded the map to my GPS.

We plan on staying a week at Secret Bay resort in Portsmouth where the trail ends. Do any of the hotels or places you stayed at on the trail have any way of cleaning clothes or drying them? The longest hike I have done was 3 days and I brought extra clothes, just trying to see how much Ill need to bring and how dirty ill be, lol.

Hi Nolan,
Sorry for the delay. I do intend to finish the journal for the WNT, but now that I’m on the road it’s hard to find the time to do it. I do have all the material I need to finish it online though. No promises, but I’ll make an effort and try to complete it in the next couple of months.

None of the hotels I stayed had a way to wash and dry clothes. I basically just washed them myself in the shower. Most hotels have a fan in the room so I just used that all night to try to dry the clothes as much as possible. Dominica is very humid, even with fresh clean clothes, you and the clothes will start to stink in less than half a day.

Are you sure you want to do it in October? Isn’t that still hurricane season?

I thought I would share my experience too. My wife and I walked Segments 5,6,7,8 half of 9 and half of 11. To give you an idea of us, we are both fit, prepared to live off the land (i.e. as happy to wash in a river as in a shower, though we did use hotels/guest houses) and we carried heavy packs (12-18kg).

The routes are well signed but it is very easy to get lost in the jungle sections so care is advised. The route has every type of terrain you could imagine and there are some very tough steep climbs on almost every section we walked however, if you take your time, it is not too bad. Don’t be scared by segments 8 and 9 though you will need either a guide or a navigation device such as a GPS as some of the river crossings are confusing and you can easily get lost in the jungle due to fallen trees. We did not use a guide for any section but did use a GPS.

There are rain forests – it rains – get on with it. Rain = mud so it can be slippery. We walked in February so it was warm with almost equal amounts of dazzling sunshine and phenomenal rain.

Hiking the entire trail would be a tough expedition and would need a high level of fitness and planning if you wanted to walk every day and be self sufficient. Accommodation is easily found, as is food, just ask the locals and be open and willing to trust – 99.9% of them are not only friendly but desperate to make your trip amazing. Other people on this discussion can provide you with endless info. Walking individual sections in isolation would give you good walks and unless your a fatty, most people should be able to complete them.

I have uploaded all my GPS tracks and more details of our route and where we stayed etc on gpsies.com and used an app called ‘maaloo outdoor’ to navigate. You can also follow the OneRun GPS tracks which cover the entire trail.

We loved the walk and would love to go back again one day and complete the remaining sections.

If you are interested in a mental long walk for the boiling lake which includes some of the WNT I have also uploaded a GPSie for that too.